


Idle Thoughts

by GloomDraws



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-16
Updated: 2018-01-16
Packaged: 2019-03-05 11:38:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13387017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GloomDraws/pseuds/GloomDraws
Summary: A (terribly) short ficlet raising some interesting questions about the end of the game (Pacifish) spoilers implied. Undertale Secret Santa 2017





	Idle Thoughts

The park was empty, except for the human, two skeletons, and a flower. Papyrus and Sans had “Frisk Duty”, a term that Papyrus found sounded of more obligation than he felt when it came to spending time with their little savior. Undyne had coined the phrase, in her making-things-sound-more-onerous-than-they-were sort of way, though Papyrus expected that she not-so-secretly enjoyed her time with Frisk as well. For Papyrus’ part, he was taking a page out of Sans’ book today, and lay under a large tree alongside his brother.

The sensation of the sun filtering through the leaves on his bones was a dappled pattern of warm and cool. Squirrels and birds chittered and chirped above him. The grass and leaves rustled. The wind whistled through his ears. It was good to be outside, and he was simply _enjoying_ it.

Frisk’s odd giggle reached him in his quiet reverie- it wasn’t the peal of laughter he’d heard from other children. It was different. Haunted. They’d seen much in their time in the underground. Much more than any child should deal with. Almost more than any other child _had_. But six others had done so.

Seven, he corrected. _Seven others_.

He opened his eyes and looked at where Frisk was playing with Flowey in the sandbox, pretending to “plant” him in the sand, and then build a castle around him. There was an odd gleam in their eye as they lowered Flowey into a carefully dug hole. It was something he would see on occasion, the kind of gleam one would see in a camera flash, but there was no camera. He didn’t know why, but it troubled him.

“SANS,” he said.

“mm, what is it, Pap?” His brother asked. Papyrus sometimes thought his brother only _pretended_ to be asleep most of the time, as quickly as he responded.

“DO YOU RECALL THE AMALGAMATES?” Papyrus asked.

Sans sat up and stretched, his bones popped and crackled. He looked at his brother with his usual, implacable grin. “the ones the doc worked on? what about them?”

“THEY WERE EXPERIMENTS WITH DETERMINATION, YES?” Papyrus said, “BUT MONSTERS WEREN’T ABLE TO HANDLE IT, AND THEY… BECAME THOSE THINGS.” Papyrus looked at Frisk while he spoke. They would never seem normal, but it was hard to have anything but the warmest of feelings for the human. Yet something still nagged at him.

“what are you getting at?” Sans asked.

“WE DON’T HAVE SEPARATE BODIES FROM OUR SOULS, AND BECAUSE OF THIS, WE DON’T HAVE… I DO NOT KNOW, _ROOM_ FOR DETERMINATION,” Papyrus said, “BUT THOSE AMALGAMATES DID. WE HAVE SEEN IT. THEY ARE THE SAME KIND AND GENTLE MONSTERS, BUT THEY ARE NEARLY IMMORTAL BY OUR STANDARDS.”

“so, bro, you’re saying maybe we have a skoosh of room?” Sans looked at him from behind his unreadable grin.

Papyrus shook his head. “NO. WELL, YES,” he said. “BUT HUMAN SOULS, THEY ARE SEPARATE FROM THEIR VESSELS. WITH DETERMINATION, THEY CAN PERSIST AFTER DEATH.”

“that’s over, though,” Sans said, “those souls vanished.”

“THEY MIGHT HAVE,” Papyrus said. “I DO NOT KNOW, MY BROTHER, WHAT BECAME OF THEM. BUT CONSIDER: IF THOSE MONSTERS SURVIVED AS AMALGAMATES- SOULS, AND BY EXTENSION, BODIES, FUSED TOGETHER WITH DETERMINATION- WHAT WOULD A HUMAN AMALGAMATE, WITH ITS OWN BODY EVEN LOOK LIKE?”

The light dimmed as a cloud passed over the sun. Papyrus trembled slightly with the cool wind that followed. Or maybe it was that, as he watched Frisk dump a bucket of sand over Flowey, he thought he saw a chilling smile with that same sinister gleam pass over their face. The cloud passed, and Papyrus squinted in the sudden light. When his sight adjusted, Frisk wore the same impassive expression they usually did.

 


End file.
